The Yishuv and the Zionist Struggle Now.

BEN-GURION, David.

$1,800.00

Item Number: 146792

Jerusalem: [Hashiloah Printing Press], April 1947.

Scarce printing of this address, delivered by David Ben-Gurion at the Session of the Vaad Leumi held in Jerusalem on April 1, 1947. Thin octavo, original wrappers. In very good condition with light toning to the first and last few leaves, institutional stamps to the title page. Rare.

David Ben-Gurion was the primary founder of the State of Israel and the first Prime Minister of Israel. Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946. As head of the Jewish Agency from 1935, and later president of the Jewish Agency Executive, he was the de facto leader of the Jewish community in Palestine, and largely led its struggle for an independent Jewish state in Mandatory Palestine. On 14 May 1948, he formally proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel, and was the first to sign the Israeli Declaration of Independence, which he had helped to write. Ben-Gurion led Israel during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and united the various Jewish militias into the Israel Defense Forces. Subsequently, he became known as "Israel's founding father."